If you go into a room full of Christians today and the conversation turns to the particular church that you attend, one of the almost inevitable questions you will be asked is: What is the worship style in your church? And it may not be long in the conversation before what the journals and the magazines today call “worship wars” break out. Christians today have developed an entire vocabulary to describe the way they worship God.

And the fact of the matter is that the worship wars of the 21^st century are not the first worship wars the Christian Church has ever faced or endured. Indeed, in a sense, for the very souls and Christian lives of these early Christians to whom the letter to the Hebrews was first written, in their souls there was a kind of worship war going on. They found themselves embattled. Many of them had very literally been disinherited. Some of them had been imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. And because it looks as though their background was a Jewish background – with the worship of the temple, the great ritual of the temple occasions, the great feasts, the thronging crowds – one of the things that tempted them to go back was the glory days of worshipping together in the temple. Now they were worshipping together in one another’s homes in the biggest room they could find, or perhaps somewhere down by the riverside. And there were voices that said, “Oh, if you would just come back to the glory days of the worship style that you used to have!”

And one of the things the author of the letter to the Hebrews says over and over and over again to these Hebrew Christians is this: “Do not be mistaken by appearances. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, because the one glory and the one Person that was absent from the Jerusalem temple, with all its ritual and all its splendour and all the different ways in which it pointed forwards to the future, was the One who transforms Christian worship – the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.”

One of the great lessons that this unknown writer is teaching these Christians is the marvellous lesson of the ministry of Jesus Christ in the worship services of His people. In fact, in Hebrews 8 the author uses a word to describe the Lord Jesus that is actually the word from which we get the word "liturgy" in English, or "liturgist." It speaks about the Lord Jesus here in Hebrews 8:2 as the Liturgist in the true temple of God. In other words, he is saying, “Christian friends, understand that the great and glorious thing about Christian worship is not the context in which it takes place, but the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is present among His people and He is the One who is leading His people in worship and praise.”

Actually, there is a relatively easy way to test that: Ask yourself what the circumstances/events were of the three or four worship services that have made the most lasting impression on your life and you perhaps feel have done you the most good. I think if we were all to mention these today to one another, we would be astonished at how different they are – some of them in small situations, some of them in unexpected situations, some of them in another country, some of them in grand scale situations! But the one thing that unites them all in our experience is the sense we have had of the presence of Jesus Christ and the ministry of Jesus Christ.

In my teens I used to go to a Bible class, and at the beginning of the Bible class every Sunday we would sing this song:

Jesus, stand among us
In your risen power.
Let this time of worship
Be a holy hour.
W. Pennefather, 1873.

I used to wonder, “But what is Jesus doing when He stands among us? Is He just standing there among us?” And I want briefly to draw your attention to some of the things that this great second chapter of Hebrews tells us the Lord Jesus is doing here and now, as we gather together to worship.

Jesus Gathers Us Together as His Family⤒🔗

The first of them is this: Jesus gathers us as His family. In Hebrews 2:12-13 there are quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures. The third of them is from the prophecy of Isaiah, where Isaiah is saying, “Lord, here am I, and the children you have given me. You have given us as a special community to be signs of your glory and of your grace in the midst of an ungodly world, and I am gathering my children around me and bringing them into your presence.” And amazingly, the author [of Hebrews] puts these words now into the mouth of Jesus, and he says, “Christian, do you see that the Lord Jesus gathers us together as His family, as His children?”

As He is our worship leader, He leads us into the presence of the heavenly Father. And as we say the words, “Let us worship God,” He is saying the words, “Father, here am I, and the children you have given me.” And we become conscious in a very special sense that these occasions are occasions of family reunion.

The apostle John, at the beginning of the book of Revelation when he was on the barren island of Patmos, says that “on the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit” (Revelation 1:10). And when he saw that door opened into heaven, what was he seeing? He was seeing the heavenly family of our Lord Jesus Christ – those amazing beasts (whatever they mean) that surround the throne, and the angels, and the saints of every age, and the glory of the Father. And it is as though the author of Hebrew is saying, “Don’t you see that when you assemble in worship, wherever you are, the Lord Jesus opens the door of heaven and He leads you into the Father’s presence?” You come burdened and you come perhaps with a sense of guilt and shame. You find it almost impossible to sing the songs of joy. And He draws you from behind His back and He says, “Heavenly Father, here am I, and the children that you have given to me.”

A friend of mine led a tour last year to these seven churches of the book of Revelation. I said, “Did you go to the island of Patmos?” He said, “No; I asked the people about going to Patmos, and they said it will take you a day to get there and a day to get back, and when you get to Patmos you don’t see anything.” And I thought to myself, “Tell that one to the apostle John!” But you know, that is church, isn’t it? That is worship. As Jesus leads us into the presence of the Father, it is actually possible to be in the building and to see nothing, as it was possible perhaps to have sat beside the apostle John on the island of Patmos and to have seen nothing. But oh, like John in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, to hear the voice that comes from heaven that says, “The door is open; come up here and share in the glorious family celebration of our God!”

That is what Hebrews 12 is speaking about. We have not come to Mount Zion, but we have come in a sense to the very edge of the heavenly Jerusalem, to share in the worship service that our Lord Jesus Christ leads as He gathers us as His family.

Jesus Leads Us in Our Praises←⤒🔗

But not only does the Lord Jesus gather us as His family, the author tells us in the second place that the Lord Jesus leads us in our praises. Look at Hebrews 2:12, which is a quotation from Psalm 22 (which all of us know, because it is the Psalm that the Lord Jesus was quoting on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). But that Psalm goes on to speak about what the Lord Jesus will do in His triumph and His resurrection. So the author puts these words into the mouth of our Lord Jesus in the midst of the congregation: “I will sing your praises.”

I wonder if you ever think that that is what is happening when we sing and when we stand to praise. We are being led by our musicians and our instrumentalists and our choir, and we are leading one another, but actually we are all being conducted by the Lord Jesus! And we are joining our voices with the Lord Jesus’ as He says, “Come on now, I am singing the praises of my heavenly Father in the midst of the great congregation! You sing along with me!”

Our friend the late Dr Clowney used to say, “Whenever you stand to sing, think that you are sharing your hymnbook with the Lord Jesus.” And of course, the glory of that is that no matter how badly you sing or how well you sing, [you are] able to sing with the Lord Jesus! I am sure some of you, in your secret hearts, your great ambition when you get to heaven is to be able to sing as well there as you do in the shower in the morning! You listen to these great singers and you think, “Wouldn’t it be glorious to sing a duet with him or with her? For my voice to be covered by his voice and encouraged by her voice?” The author is telling us, “But dear ones, this is what you are doing when you come to worship! You are being led into His presence by the Lord Jesus, and He is the presenter of the people’s praises.” He is, in a sense, the heavenly organist who says, “You will sing in tune with me in spiritual perfect pitch.”

Jesus Preaches God’s Word to Us←⤒🔗

So Jesus gathers us together as His family. Jesus, says the author of the Hebrews, leads us in our praises. But then there is another thing here, and it is found in the quotation again in verse 12: “I will tell of your name to my brothers.” Jesus who gathers us and Jesus who leads us is the Jesus who preaches God’s Word to us.

That is why we need the Holy Spirit in preaching, so that by His Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus will take the exposition of His Word (as He took it on the Emmaus road) and work it right into our hearts, so that we become conscious that it is the Lord Jesus Himself who is speaking to us, and we want to say, “Lord, did not our hearts burn within us as you spoke to us from your Word?”

And so we discover in the ministry of the Word, in all its various locations, that our hearts and minds are engaging in a kind of dialogue with the Lord Jesus. Sometimes it is a fighting dialogue (we are saying to Him, “Don’t you go there! Leave me alone, Lord Jesus!”). And sometimes it is a dialogue that just makes us rest our weary souls on Him, because we are able to say to Him, “I didn’t know you knew about that, Lord Jesus…I had been hiding it even from myself.” He speaks to us through the ministry of His Word.

That is, incidentally, why our sermons are a little longer than is standard these days. It is not because it takes us a long time to say things; it is because we feel we are engaged in a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ. I had a phone call after a morning service once in another place, where a family I knew had a guest who was interested in the daughter in the family. The message that was passed on from this young man was: “Tell Sinclair that that was a very interesting sermon this morning. I rather enjoyed it. But you know, ten or eleven minutes is the standard time these days.” But he had not actually experienced the preaching of Jesus; all he had heard was my preaching. Maybe ten minutes was quite enough of my preaching, but when you are hearing the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word, then you are caught up, and you lose sense of time and even sense of place, because you know that you are engaging with Him.

(Transcription 20:33 to 20:37 and 20:52 to 21:12 omitted.)

[Think of] a young man who has fallen in love and he has spent three hours talking to a girl. He comes back to his dorm room and his friends say, “What were you doing?” He says, “We were talking.” “But you have been away three hours! What have you to talk about to a girl for three hours?” But you see, he discovered a soul dialogue and a soulmate. And so Jesus, who gathers us as His family, is the Jesus who leads us in our worship, and is the Jesus who preaches to us from God’s Word.  

Jesus Meets Us in Our Need←⤒🔗

And He is, finally, the Jesus who comes to meet us in our need. Now, we all know that we do not come to worship the Lord simply because we want Him to meet our needs, but because He is worthy of our praise and of our worship and our honour. But the glorious thing is that He does meet our needs! And we become conscious of that because of the wonder of His presence as our eyes are fixed upon Jesus. As the author goes on to say, He is the Jesus who has gone through all the tests and struggles and trials through which we have gone! And He has the power to see us through them!

So as Christ Himself is present among His people and our eyes are fixed upon Him, we are able to say to Him, “Lord Jesus, I am going through things I cannot handle, but you have the love for me and the power to help me.” And although we leave the building conscious that we go back to face different and sometimes difficult situations, yet there is something different, because we know that He is able to help us and strengthen us and He will be with us, and by His grace He will see us through.

Many years ago when I was a very young minister, I went along to speak at a youth rally in a place I thought I knew well. I casually opened the doors of the auditorium expecting to see a crowd of young people there, and I was absolutely astonished as I opened the double doors that striding towards me was a man who actually seemed about eight feet tall! He was clothed in the liturgical garments of a Greek-Orthodox priest and he was swinging a huge censer. The room was full of smoke, and he was looking directly at me and marching straight towards me. I got such a shock I instantaneously closed the doors and stepped back! And I thought to myself, “Did I see that? Or was I just imagining things?” I kind of wished the rest of my life I had had the courage to open the doors again to see whether it was real or whether I had just being imagining it!

I often think that as we leave church (especially if strangers are among us, perhaps strangers who know very little or nothing of this) that one of the most glorious things that could happen is, as they are walking back to their automobile, the thought that is in their mind is, “Did I really see that and sense that? Or was I just imagining it? I must go back and see, because I feel like I have tasted heaven in that place!” And all because the Lord Jesus Christ has been at the centre of our worship!

That is why in some ways the most magical words we are privileged to hear every week are the words, “Let us worship God.” Because there is simply an invitation to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ as He gathers us as His family, saying to His Father, “Father, here am I, and all the children that you have given me. Let them worship you.” It is glorious when it is real. And when it is real, the glory moves out of the building and begins to touch men and women and boys and girls, and they are drawn to the grace and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ too.